The Seed Saga: To Plant a Pumpkin

This post is an extension of Planning a Garden In a Record-Breaking Blizzard, because...well... the saga continues!  I still have three tabs open, with seeds in each cart and have been adding, switching and removing seeds each day.  I WILL figure this out!

One of my hopes for the new homestead is to have a u-pick pumpkin patch within the next couple of years.  It would be a great source of additional income, and something new in our area.  The new homestead is located in the perfect location for such an endeavour, right on route between the city and a very popular farmer's market that is one of 'THE Go-To' places each summer.  It is also located in an area with a few different apple orchards that offer u-pick apples, so I can see many families making a stop at our patch during those beautiful autumn days.  I'd also like to hope that local photographers and parents eager to take their children's pictures would like to stop in and use our picturesque land and pumpkins, while visiting the animals... oh, one can dream!

 Fall, and all of the wonderfulness that goes with it,  is my most absolute favourite time of the year.  This includes pumpkins...  I love them!  As I'm sitting here, staring at all the pumpkins available, there are certain varieties that I have always wanted to grow and offer in the patch:

Rouge vif d'Etampes,
aka The Cinderella

Rouge vif d'Etampes Pumpkin - aka The Cinderella Pumpkin.  Almost a red-orange, with a more flatten shape than jack-o-lanterns, they make such beautiful additions to any fall decor.  Bonus: you can use them for cooking, too!

Warty Sanchez Pumpkin

Warty Pumpkin  or Sanchez.  These are just so neat and really fall into the Halloween decorating theme, in my opinion.  I just love the way they look.  They are good for eating as well.

For Jack-o-lanterns I'm still undecided between Jack of All Trades and Howdens.  They both are used for Halloween carving and are good varieties... I'm leaning more more towards the Howdens, but we shall see.  I'd love to hear your input!

Lumina

I also would love to grow Ghost (Lumina, white) pumpkins and FairyTale pumpkins... oh the choices.

Last but not least (because there are others I want to grow as well, haha!), let's not forget Dill's Atlantic Giants.. because what pumpkin patch is complete without a giant pumpkin to crawl all over?  

Now, you might be thinking, "Hey, just go for it and grow a few of each!"  Believe me, I'd love to.  There is a problem though.  With open-pollination and heirloom pumpkins there is the trouble of cross pollination and we don't want that!  So, I have a few options:

My first option, and the one I don't like very much (that would be my stubbornness coming out), is to just plant one variety of pumpkin each season.  If this was the case, I would have to stick with a traditional jack-o-lantern variety.  Don't get me wrong, I love them too, but I'm really hoping to offer some variety and some types that aren't available just everywhere else.  So, if I'm not going to stick with just one type of pumpkin, I have a few more possibilities...

My second option to deal with cross pollination between pumpkin varieties is the distance method.  This method involves planting different varieties of a plant species far enough apart that pollinators, like bees, won't likely visit both in one day.  With our 5 acre field of dreams, this method won't be possible.  It might be for some plants, but not for pumpkins, as they need about 1/2 a mile to be safe (give or take, depending on who you listen to).  Some plants, such as self pollinating beans, aren't such an issue, while some varieties of beets need 5 miles (Whoa! Better hope Mr. McGregor next door isn't planting beets this year too!).  There is a great book, called Seed to Seed, by Suzanne Ashworth that has great information about plant spacing and seed saving.  I also really love this super chart over at How to Save Seeds.  These people know their plant spacing!  I'm a fact-nut, so I find it pretty interesting.

Another method, that won't work for us unfortunately, is to time planting so that different varieties aren't all blooming at the same time.  From my pumpkin growing experience, once a pumpkin plant starts to bloom, it just keeps going.  Some growing methods involve leaving only one pollinated pumpkin per vine or plant, but if you aren't going for show-sized pumpkins, your plants can bear more than one fruit.  (Yes, pumpkins are in fact fruit!  If you want to get super specific, they are more closely related to berries and are a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, in the Cucurbita genus.  This also includes cucumbers, melons and squash).

This leaves us to the last method, which is covering the blooms to avoid letting pollinators at them.  This is also the method that I'm going to have to use, if I want to grow more than one type of pumpkin.  What my plan is, is to grow mostly jack-o-lantern pumpkins, as this is the kind that a lot of potential U-Pickers are going to come looking for. This way, I only have to cover the blossoms of the secondary varieties.  Although this will cause extra work, I think it will be our best option.

So there you have it!  One of the many thoughts that are running through my head as I 'try' to plan this years garden.  My thoughts are this:  We may not know WHERE, but we can try to narrow down the WHAT as much as possible.  Plan for small and hope for more.  Expect little and be surprised for more... you get the picture.

I'll be posting a delicious recipe in my next post, one especially for any followers with Irish roots... or those who do for one day per year ;)

PS-  More snow in the forecast tonight!